If Dogs Could Talk
by Light of Polaris
Summary: He only hit his head, she thought, he can't be dead. Inexplicably, the sight of this boy bleeding against the wall with a snake demon slithering over to him made her lungs contract painfully, her heart speed, and her head throb with fear. See profile! R


"Kagome, in the tree twenty feet in front and to the right!" A young voice shouted. Kagome rolled her eyes. The extra directions weren't necessary, she had already spotted it. Hard not to when it was thrashing violently with the movements of the creature it hid. The boy was making a circumspect approach with an array of toys that seemed harmless but contained bits of tricky fox magic that would make grown demons cringe while Kagome hung back.

"What an idiot," The boy's black-haired companion, Kagome said with ill-kempt disgust as a dark form emerged from the tree and landed ten feet away from his hiding spot. Stupid move. Kagome drew an arrow from her quiver and notched it while the boy distracted the hissing and snapping cat demon. She took aim at the demon's over-sized belly, filled with the remains of an unfortunate hiker, and heard the twang of the bowstring as she loosed it. She averted her eyes after that and concentrated on a different tree. She knew it would hit its mark but she didn't want to watch. She heard the cat demon screech and her mind dredged up images of previous demon hunts. The arrow whizzing through the air with the peculiar bluish glow of spiritual power, the terrified look on the demon's face as he realized it was no ordinary arrow, and the flash of light as the demon burst and purified. It was always the same. And she hated it. _Why do I always feel so guilty?_ She asked herself.

"Nice work, Kagome. Wish we'd found him before he ate the hiker." The boy sighed with regret. "You want to bless the area?" Kagome turned back to the boy, the cat demon was nowhere to be seen.

"Yeah, give me a minute." She kneeled on the soft earth of the forest and began chanting the ritual prayer Kaede taught her. It kept the negative energies of the dying demons from festering in the area and helped any souls who might've perished there to move on. Her spiritual power flared around her as she finished but only for an instant and then she was standing up again.

"It always makes my hair stand on end when you do that." The boy said as he followed Kagome's quick pace through the forest.

"Yeah, well that's because you're a demon Shippo. And thanks," she said with sarcasm, "I just needed to be reminded of how frightening I am to demons."

Shippo knew he'd hit a sore spot and kept quiet for a while but it was not in his nature to be quiet for long. Kagome groaned inwardly when the fox demon began to speak again.

"Do you think the transfer student will be a girl or a boy? Demon, half-demon, or human? I wonder what he or she looks like? You probably already know, don't you? What's his or her name?" Shippo asked. This wasn't the first time he'd brought up the subject but somehow he kept forgetting that crucial detail.

"We've been through this before, I only know that it's a he and he's a half-demon. That's it. End of discussion." Kagome passed under the last tree and onto the hard dirt of the obstacle course, at last. Shippo was grating on her nerves. It wasn't normal for her to be this frustrated but she was still upset that weren't able to prevent the hiker's death and killing the demon despite how foul the creature was.

"You always say 'end of discussion' when we haven't even discussed anything!" Shaking her head but otherwise ignoring the red-haired fox demon, Kagome spotted Kaede with a group of first year high school students on the practice field.

"It looks like she's making them run." She said 'run' but what she really meant was 'hit and run'. The students have to attack a dummy and then run before the mechanism triggered by their blow catches them with the wooden stick. It sounds easy, but the wooden stick comes fast and hard.

"We're not doing that, right?" Shippo asked nervously. He may be thin but he's also tall and clumsy. He never survived the exercise very long.

"I don't know, I think she mentioned sometime next week but with the added twist of sand bags attached to the stick." _I'm so spiteful, _she thought with dark amusement as Shippo shuddered. Kaede _had_ mentioned doing the exercise with us juniors next week but not with sandbags, of course.

"Our next class is probably starting soon. Let's give her our report and hope she doesn't ask us to join in." She said and then she and Shippo began weaving their way through the obstacle course towards Kaede.

When they reached their 'gym' teacher, she was directing a rather haggard-looking group of students to the showers. Kagome could barely conceal her relief that none of were too traumatized. On top of being one of the school's primary demon hunters she was also the student counselor and the less students that had to come to her, the better. She wasn't made of time, after all.

"I'm disappointed." Was the first thing Kaede said to them.

"What? Why?" Kagome asked, surprised. The mission went without a hitch.

"Because you walked through the obstacle course but you didn't complete it. Every opportunity to improve the body through physical activity should be taken. I have half a mind to make you go back and do it." Kaede told them with a chiding tone.

"Please no, we have Demon History next and Kikyo is a bi—ah, I mean, awful mean lady when we're late," she begged. Kikyo had some kind of grudge against her and Shippo and took every chance to pass snide comments and sometimes, punish them.

"I should not say this about a fellow teacher but the word you were going to say would have been an apt description of Ms. Kikyo. Now, off to class with you." Then Kaede turned and walked across the practice field towards the path to her cottage leaving Kagome and Shippo laughing hysterically behind her.

oOoOoOoOoOo

Even with the earlier start, Kagome and Shippo still arrived late. When Kagome had emerged from the girl's bathroom, freshly showered, she had been run into by a tearful sophomore. It was her usual client, Rin. Rin always had some problem or other and Kagome was her only confidant because being the adopted daughter of a demon made it difficult to make friends. Especially when said demon is very powerful and comes to school on the first day every year to warn Rin's male classmates that should any of them break Rin's heart, he has poisonous claws.

It took awhile but after she had successfully calmed the girl down and sent her on her way, she met up with Shippo and the both of them ran pell-mell through the hallways to the other side of the rather large school. Still they were late.

"Ah, they're here. And I was beginning to hope they'd never come." Kikyo said with venom as Kagome and Shippo arrived in the door, breathless. "I do hope you can stop panting like dogs in the heat long enough to find a seat and stop your meaningless disruption."

A few students snickered as Kagome and Shippo found their seats and those unfortunate classmates received Shippo's signature trick as he passed. A leaf that transformed into whatever the person most feared. More than a few turned into miniature Kikyos. One of the girls screeched, catching Kikyo's attention but she didn't turn away from what she was writing on the board fast enough. By the time she caught sight of the frightened girl, Shippo had already turned the fearful sight back into a leaf.

"I didn't think you were that terrified of words, Chiru. Perhaps you need a tutor." Kikyo's voice always sounds acidic but this was much more potent. Chiru, the girl who shrieked, flushed red and had to blink a lot for the next few minutes to hold back her tears. Kagome almost felt sorry for her, all of them have the same enemy when it comes right down to it.

Kagome slumped in her chair and pretended to take notes. This was her least favorite class and as overwhelming a reason as it might be, it's not only the teacher. The whole subject annoyed her to no end. This priestess vanished this demon, another demon slaughtered thousands, a monk killed that demon. Why must I know this?

It only took a few more minutes of Kikyo's droning and the rhythmic squeaking of marker on whiteboard before Kagome fell asleep with her head in her hand.

oOoOoOoOoOo

Kagome was known to have premonitions from time to time so it didn't surprise her when her mind drifted into a setting that she recognized as the third graders' math classroom. If it had been a regular dream she wouldn't be as lucid and aware as she was now. Her premonition self heard a slithering sound that made her tense with apprehension. Slowly, she turned around and screamed at the monster before her. A snake demon loomed above her in the hallway but he was unlike any snake demon she had ever seen before. He was a deep black and at least twenty feet long. That hadn't been what made her scream.

It was the lifeless child clutched in his two foot long fangs that instilled such terror in her. Her pale face was pinched in a frightened expression and she was drenched in the blood that dripped from the hole in her chest and leg. As Kagome stared at the child the snake slid his tongue out and snatched the child farther into his gaping maw. It swallowed and the poor girl was gone. Kagome was desperate to escape the premonition but it wasn't done yet. A boy about her age turned the corner at the end of the hall and froze. He looked worriedly at her with deep brown eyes in the moment before the tail threw him against the wall. I could see the crimson dripping from his long black hair and he looked as lifeless as the girl had. _He only hit his head_, she thought, _he can't be dead! _Inexplicably the sight of this boy bleeding against the wall with a snake demon slithering over to him made her lungs contract painfully, her heart speed, and her head throb, and she knew the feeling was real because whatever she felt in her premonitions, her body felt them too. It was a relief when the scene finally faded away, taking the horrible snake demon and the boy with it.

oOoOoOoOoOo

When Kagome woke up, she was no longer in Kikyo's classroom, thank the spirits. She was in the nurse's office.

Jinenji was sitting next to her in a chair that was a million times too small for him with a mug of something hot.

"Oh, you are awake. Mother made this for you, she knew you were having a Seeing dream and thinks this best for you." Jinenji's words are slow and hard to understand but years of practice allowed for some comprehension.

"Thanks, Jin." She said hoarsely as she took the mug, it warmed her chilled fingers. "I've been screaming, haven't I?" Jinenji nodded. She sighed and took a tentative sip from the mug, tasted like buttermilk. She often screamed more in reality than she did in her premonitions.

"I take it Kaede is going to drop by soon?" She asked him. His eyes darted towards the door and she noticed the Kaede was already there.

"You haven't had one that bad in years. I'll need to hear everything that happened." Kaede said as she shooed Jinenji out of the room and closed the door. The last thing Kagome wanted to do was relive the horrible nightmare, she refused to think of it as a premonition anymore, but if there was a chance of stopping it, Kaede had to know. So she waited for Kaede to seat herself before she began.

"A snake demon was in the hallway outside the third grade math classroom. It was a deep black and at least twenty feet long with two foot fangs. It had a…" Kagome shuddered, "a little girl speared on them. It swallowed the child. Then a boy with long black hair and brown eyes appeared and was smashed against…" Kagome paused, throat tight and tears slipping down her face, "against the wall. He was bleeding and the snake was standing over him and I was so afraid he was going to die and that's when I woke up," she finished in a rush, no longer able to contain the sobs. _Why am I being so irrational?_ She wondered.

Kaede rarely showed affection but the arms that embraced her were comforting if a bit awkward in their occasional pats.

"We can change it, now that we know of it. Trust me, Kagome, it won't happen." Kaede's voice sounded so firm and resolute. Kagome knew she could believe her. It took only seconds for Kagome to recollect herself.

"Now, go get changed into something nice and meet me in the lobby. We're welcoming the transfer student today and as student counselor you're required to be there." Kagome nodded and Kaede left.

Kagome finished her mug before she got out of the soft mattress and followed. She walked down the English hallway towards the back exit, with only a slight lightheadedness. She opened the door and stepped out into the night. Had her premonition really lasted that long? It felt like only minutes ago she had been laughing at Shippo's mischief in Kikyo's class.

She glanced up at the stars as she approached the girl's dormitory. It was optional for students to live at the school or at home but since her family owned the school, she had no choice. Her own mother lived in this dormitory. Five-stories made of brick with arched windows and a fenced roof for people to stand on, it was the more familiar to her than the school itself.

It didn't take long before she was in her room rummaging through her closet for a decent dress. Knowing that time was short, she decided on a sleeveless purple dress with a slight v-shaped front. She slid it on over her head and let the skirt fall to her knees. Not too short, not too long. She ran a brush through her black hair and then glanced in the mirror. Medium height, skinny, long-legged Kagome with a heart-shaped face and blue eyes stared back at her. She wished her lips were fuller and her nose straighter but she can't have all her mom's good looks.

She brushed her teeth before she left to get rid of the surprisingly bitter aftertaste of that mug of medicine before she left the room. Now to meet that transfer student. _A half-demon, huh?_ She thought as she descended the winding staircase from the dorm, _I get along with Shippo fine, how bad could a half-demon be?_

Kagome's School Schedule:

6:00 A.M.: School starts

First class: Calculus

7:00 A.M.

Second class: Religion

8:00 A.M.

Third class: Herbs and Medicines

9:00 A.M.

Fourth class: English

10:00 A.M.

Fifth class: Lunch

11:00 A.M.

Sixth class: 'Gym'

12:30 P.M.

Seventh class: Demon History

1:30 P.M.

Eighth class: Archery

2:30 P.M.

Ninth class: Meditation

3:30 P.M.: School ends

My first Inuyasha fic! Reviews are helpful and they make me smile so, if you yourself like to smile than give a smile to me. That schedule there is to put the day in a time frame. I hope you enjoyed it!


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